


Sisters and Other Strangers

by MarshmallowNerd



Category: Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Awkward Sexual Situations, F/M, Love Confessions, POV Multiple, Protective Siblings, Some Fluff, everyone loves Claire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 20:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4493568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarshmallowNerd/pseuds/MarshmallowNerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The moment Karen realized she should believe what her sons say more often. At the same time, Claire realized she finally has someone who loves her the way Owen does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sisters and Other Strangers

**Author's Note:**

> This kind of got away from me. Started out humorous, but ends with some fluff, so that just might be excusable. ;)

Karen felt pleased to be close with her sister again. She had even managed to drag Claire down from whatever “pressing matter” she was busying herself with for a visit while her sons were away with their father for the first time since the separation. The night before her boys were meant to come, an ex-coworker of Claire’s dropped by who would take her to her home in Miami. Karen somewhat knew him as ‘Uncle Owen’ because of her boys, who said he had helped them during Jurassic World’s downfall, and was now Claire’s boyfriend. Karen had merely brushed it off, since Zach and Gray called most of their family friends ‘uncle’ or ‘aunt’, and had probably just been taking a page out of her book of wanting Claire to get with someone romantically.

After meeting him in person…she felt the same. At first she had hope for her sister, having a rugged ex-Navy man as a friend to travel home with the next day, but over the course of dinner could hardly picture them being together. Owen was so laid-back, as opposed to her straight laced sister, and they were both so determined to be the dominant one in the room, they would surely butt heads often. So what reason did she have to worry they would be together romantically? She was even confident enough to sleep for the night despite the knowledge they would be sharing the same bedroom.

Karen was up before the pair the next day, and was eager to greet her boys when Scott dropped them off early in the morning. Even though their relationship was still a bit tense, the soon-to-be former spouses exchanged some pleasantries at the door.

“Claire’s still here. You want to say good-bye real quick?” Karen offered, already willing to go fetch her younger sister to at least greet the boys.

“Only if she’s up. I’d hate to bug her unnecessarily,” Scott replied.

Karen headed up the stairs to the guest room where her sister and her friend were. Zach slipped out onto the porch to answer a call from his girlfriend at the same time.

While waiting for his mother and aunt, Gray rocked back and forth on his heels. For all the information he had stored in his mind, there was not a single inch that would help him in the awkwardness of being left with his father without Karen or Zach around. He still didn’t like his parents separating, especially after only three weeks of the trauma he’d been given from Jurassic World’s animals going rogue. But his parents’ lawsuits towards a divorce had already gone too far to back out for the convenience of his and Zach’s mental states.

He was spared a conversation with his father when they were both alerted by the sound of Karen’s horrified scream.

“ _Claire_! Oh, my God!”

“Karen!” Scott leaped into action, outstretching his arm in a silent command for Gray to stay where he was until he confirmed the severity of whatever had terrified Karen so much. He charged up the stairs, making his way to Karen’s side from where she stood, frozen in the doorway to the guest room with her hand in front of her mouth, almost like Claire did when she was shocked. “Karen? What happened—?”

The sight Karen’s gaze led him to was answer enough. “Oh, good Lord.”

In the bed directly across from them, Owen and Claire sat up in the bed. Owen was shirtless, and apparently so was Claire. Scott had a pretty accurate guess what Karen had walked in on, if the messy clothes around them were anything to go by, or how Owen was still panting from something other than the embarrassment evident from Claire’s cheeks beginning to match her mussed up red hair as she tried to hide as much as herself as possible with the bed comforter.

“Karen! When did you get up?” Claire squeaked, her fist holding on to the bed covers like death at her chest, her shoulders serving as further proof that she would be completely bare without it.

“I’m— _me_?!” Karen shrieked, then pointed to Owen in accusation. “What is _he_ doing?”

“Um…Ms. Mitchell—” Owen stammered at first, uncertain of how appropriate it would be to call Claire’s sister by her first name.

“Get away from my baby sister, you foul-smelling, filthy bear!” Karen demanded, her voice still high from hysteria.

“ _Karen_!” an appalled, and somewhat protective Claire Dearing huffed.

“Karen, calm down,” Scott joined in trying to placate his former wife, placing a hand on her shoulder. “It’s not exactly a crime.”

“The hell it’s not!” Karen ripped away from him. Trying to get a hold of herself, she made her voice become firmer, but still shaking. “Owen Grady, I want you to get out of that bed right now.”

“I would love to, trust me,” Owen looked at her with sincerely apologetic eyes. “But seeing as my pants are on the other side of the room, I don’t think that’s as good an idea as you think.”

“Oh, God, they’re naked,” Karen moaned pitifully. She pressed the palms of her hands harshly against her closed eyes, hating the flashback she had to the brief image she’d gotten of her sister beneath the burly man in a rather… _compromising_ position.

Her heart stopped for a moment when she heard footsteps heading up the stairs, but was saved by Scott poking his head away from the doorframe and speaking to someone out of sight, “No, Gray, stay there! It’s nothing, you’re mom just found out your Aunt and Owen are together.”

“Oh, please, no,” Claire whimpered, tucking her face behind Owen’s shoulder as if that could protect her from the horrifying thought of her youngest nephew coming in to find her with Owen in the state they were. Would that make her the reason Karen and Scott would have to explain to their son how this situation works?

They could Gray’s voice closer now, but thankfully, he didn’t lurk within sight of the room. “But I thought we told her he was her boyfriend?”

The sight before her now made Karen wonder something. “Gray, how could you tell they were together?”

“Because they did it right in front of us,” Gray answered simply, referring to the kiss between Owen and Claire he had seen at Jurassic World and tried to tell his parents about.

Karen, in her assumption that her sons had been overanalyzing something in their hopes Claire would find an actual uncle for them, hadn’t really been listening to that part of the story at the time. Now, in her sheer shock of what she had just seen, immediately thought of ‘it’ referring to how she had just found out about her little sister’s relationship. “They did _what_?”

“Not what you think!” Claire held up her hand to stop Karen’s train of thought. “It was just a little kiss!”

“Little kiss? Or the face swallow you gave Billy Hart your senior year?” Karen demanded.

Claire would’ve answered had it not been for the huff beside her. “Who’s Billy?”

She glared at Owen. “Don’t worry about it!”

“How could you do this?” Karen demanded lowly, conscious of her youngest son nearby that had to be herded away by Scott from the scandalous area. “In _my_ house? In a bed _I_ own? Who even _is_ this guy?”

“Owen Grady from last night,” Claire growled, genuinely surprised to find her sister didn’t know anything was going on between her and Owen during dinner the previous night. She must’ve gotten _too_ good at keeping their games of footsie secretive under the table. “You met him! Hell, I _told_ you I was living with the man from the park!”

“I thought you meant the one from the computer room, who released the T-Rex for you!”

“What—Lowery? He could barely keep his own work-space in order! You honestly think I would unleash him on my house?”

“How would I know?” Karen flashed back. “I hardly know who you are anymore when you just jump into bed with the first man who looks at you after a traumatic experience!”

“Hey!” Owen spoke up. “Claire is a lot things, but she definitely isn’t the kind to warrant a few one-night-stands! Yeah, she went through a major crisis, but all she’s done ever since then is care. Care about how her nephews were doing after that, care about all who went through it, care about all those left unemployed after the park shut down, care about the animals left behind, care about me when I needed a home, and care about still looking good in your eyes, so you can imagine the _wonders_ this moment is doing for her now. But she is more than some conquest for me; she’s my friend, a rare organized friend, complete with stupiditineraries and color-coded notes for everything. And responsible for everything else too, working over eighteen hours a day to clean up the mess that was once her workplace—which should say right there something about the hard-work she’s dedicated to. I really do love your sister, and the only thing I’m sorry for here is that you had to walk in while I was showing her.”

By the end of his tirade, both sisters were staring at Owen, shocked into silence by how much about Claire was at the top of his head, and how fast he had used it to defend her at the slightest hint that Claire was anything less than respectable. In addition, Claire had never heard Owen verbally tell her he loved her, and for the first time to be in front of her sister made the corners of her mouth twitch, unsure to smile or question him about it. “Owen—”

She jumped slightly when a cold set of fingers wrapped around her hand, even though it was still clutching the bedsheets tightly against her bare chest. “Aw, Claire-Bear!” Karen breathed, her other arm wrapping tightly around her shoulders. “I’ve always wanted you to find someone who takes good care of you, and now I think you have!”

“Then why are you crying?” Claire wondered.

“‘Cause I’m happy for you!” Karen blinked away her pooling tears.

Claire betrayed no emotion, calmly pointing out that she could see the top of Gray’s shaggy hair in the doorway. “If you really cared for me so much, you would kindly get rid of your son before he steps on my bra.”

Karen looked up and immediately noticed Claire’s clothes by the door, and Gray still trying to walk in, right by the messy pile. “Oh!” she scurried to the other end of the room, helping Scott herd Gray away and closing the door behind her, though not before Owen and Claire could hear her making up some story to excuse them.

Owen rubbed his face with his hand, glad the episode was over with. Whether Claire’s loud sigh was for the same reason was arguable. She stared emptily at the lumps in the sheet where her feet were, frozen in place. “Owen?”

“Yeah, Claire-Bear?”

She ignored his teasing tone of her family’s nickname for her. She turned to meet his eyes, her voice almost pitifully small. Probably because she had several things she wanted to say, or ask, but all that she head herself say was, “I love you, too.”

His breath hitched, clearly not noticing until now that he had (somewhat) told her aloud. Yet, it was assuring hearing her return the sentiment already. “Good, because I’m _very_ much in love with you, Claire.”

She smiled and leaned in to rest her forehead against his, shining green eyes shutting closed in a brief moment of contentment. “I don’t think anyone’s protected me that way before.”

He scoffed, as though it were no big deal. In his mind, it wasn’t. “Please, that completely pales in comparison to luring out a whopping T-Rex to protect her family and me.”

Claire bit her lip, her guilt from that day outweighing her ability to share his feeling of heroics. He had long grown used to it, and abruptly ended her thoughts with a feather-light kiss. She was more than happy to encourage him for some more, her smile growing back.

Though now, they’d learned better than to let their actions escalate any further while in her sister’s house.


End file.
